I use the MOTU 24 Core I/O w/OP-AMP mods and a BLA external clock. I'm excited to see some of the stuff coming from Antelope, though. If I had the extra cash, I'd look at them seriously. Lynx Aurora is supposed to be amazing as well. 

My main interface is the RME Fireface UFX and in my live rig I use a RME Fireface 400 and I've never had problems with either. I also have a Roland Quad Capture that has also be rock solid. In the past I've used gear by NI, Tascam and Motu which has been OK.

RME Babyface

robert_e_bone


I have the Presonus Audiobox 1818 VSL, and it works well with Sonar.

I looked up the specs for your Propellerhead Balance, and it seems like they have ASIO drivers for Windows 7 and 8, and it claims in multiple places that it works with any DAW software.


If you have that device still, can you please elaborate on the issues you were having with it and Sonar?  Perhaps the issues can be resolved, saving you from having to buy an additional interface.


Bob Bone

Balance has dropout issues with Sonar and it lead me to stop using Sonar a year ago a couple months after upgrading from Sonar 4 to X1 Studio in favor of using Reason. Its a great interface but its hit or miss with certain DAWs because it was designed to work with Reason. Propellerhead have tried to make it work right but something some where just isn't compatible. I went with Abelton Live and it really is not designed for mixing music. I can bring in some plug ins like my IK British channel and it will shoot ableton's cpu up to 20%+ meanwhile in Reaper or Sonar its down to around 2 or 3% cpu usage I am finding that a lot of stuff does this with Live so I am backing out of Ableton and considering going back to X1. That said I want a new interface if I do that. I like the interface it sounds great and works great with Reason, Ableton and Reaper but I only kind of like Reaper vs Sonar being one of my favorite DAWs despite most of its short comings 

I upgraded my interface from a Stienberg C2 and now use a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24.

The Saffire Pro 24 is Firwire/USB and I am using the Firewire.

Sonar X1 has had much better perforamce, less latency mic imputs are very nice and the interface came with some loops a Focusrite Plus-in suite wich was an added bonus (decent effects plugins free).

Ableton works much much better with this interface and I notice less drop outs, latency issues and it helped CPU hit a bit.  not sure if it cause I'm using Firewire or not but the interface made a real difference.

Pro 24 runs about $299 list but I managed to get it with a guitar center coupon for $199 or price matching via another vendor like amazon.com I can't remember - I didn't pay that much and with all the other interfaces I got a real deal for a quality interface.

I am also running Windows 7 64 bit and have a quad core 2.4ghz with 8gb ram and ssd hard drive.  all of that plays into performance as well.

I use the Roland Octa-Capture and I love using it. Since you want to stay under the $500.00 range, I would say try the Roland Quad-Capture, it's about $269.99.

brconflict


I use the MOTU 24 Core I/O w/OP-AMP mods and a BLA external clock. I'm excited to see some of the stuff coming from Antelope, though. If I had the extra cash, I'd look at them seriously. Lynx Aurora is supposed to be amazing as well. 

Hi brconflict,
I actually own both an Aurora 16 and an Orion32. I like them both and I find that, to my ears, there isn't much difference between them. The Orion is awfully limited in it's routing currently though. OTOH, 32 channels at up to 192 khz over USB and low latency is pretty cool as long as you don't need hardware routed cue mixes. Next step for me is probably an RME hdspe MADI fx and then I'll run both at once via MADI.


Dean

Waiting for the Roland Studio capture and the Aphex USB 500 Rack.

I'm using the Focusrite 18i6 and it is the best of the three interfaces that I own - best latency by far for me.  I also dig the preamps.  I have heard good things about the Roland Quadcapture and Octacapture as well, but I am perfectly content with the Focusrite!

I'm using a TC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48 & a Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2. 

Love 'em both!

I use a MOTU 896mk3 and have never had any problems.